Elected representatives, together with teachers, parents and Boards of Governors, have expressed growing fears for the future of rural schools in Fermanagh following the publication this week of the Bain Report. One local MLA claimed that his proposals would lead to 'rural apartheid'.
It contains radical proposals for their future location, size, educational content and ethos, which are now being considered by the Minister, Maria Eagle. Professor Bain was commissioned to produce a report that would address a situation where there are, at present, 50,000 empty seats in schools across the North.
He found that 40% of schools, about 440, did not have the required minimum enrolment which, for rural primary schools he has set at 105, and for urban primary schools 140.
Rather than schools being built and operating as individual units, with a small enrolment and insufficient educational facilities and no opportunity to relate to other schools in their neighbourhood, he has proposed 'area-based planning'. He defined this as a structure where communities were served by strong, viable schools that met the needs of all pupils in the area.
UUP Assemblyman, Tom Elliott said yesterday that, in the entire primary school sector in Fermanagh, there were just 20 schools in total with more than 105 pupils on the register.
"This would therefore translate into high levels of closures and amalgamation in both the controlled and voluntary maintained sectors. I fear that these proposals, if acted upon, would lead to rural apartheid in a constituency such as Fermanagh and South Tyrone where the isolated communities are connected by poor infrastructure."
In all, there are 61 recommendations in the Bain report and, for two rural primary schools in the Roslea area, Recommendation 15 could prove troublesome. Corranny and Cornagague presently exist independently and are well below the proposed 105 minimum enrolment figure.
However, a proposal to amalgamate them into one, new, six-teacher school has been approved in principle by the Department of Education, bringing their joint enrolment well above the 105 mark.
But, Recommendation 15 proposes that future building projects should be approved, 'only if area-based planning is established'. In fact, that veto extends to new school projects where the capital funding has been announced.
Corranny and Cornagague are located in Clones Parish whose Parish Priest, Canon Macartan McQuaid, a former President of St Michael's College, is no stranger to school building.
Yesterday, he told the 'Herald' that he had still to read the Bain Report thoroughly, but said he hoped that it would not affect the two schools.
"We have been given approval to amalgamate and approval to build a new six-teacher school beside Aughadrumsee Chapel. We are now just waiting confirmation from them that we can go to tender. In fact, we're disappointed that this has not happened already, that the Department has not given us the OK to build."
Many of the post-primary schools in Fermanagh also have an unclear future on the back of this Report. Fermanagh's 14 colleges, high schools and grammar schools are required to have 500 pupils, 600 if they have a sixth form.
Only four post-primary schools in the county have more than 500 pupils on the register – Devenish College, St Michael's College and Mount Lourdes.
For Tom Elliott, rural schools are the bedrock of the community, "There is no doubt that changes are required in the provision of education as the number of empty desks rises, but a one-size fits all approach will not work across the province as it fails to take into account the particular characteristics of an area.
